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A Large Dinosaurs Den Found in Malaysia 

By SIA HOK KIANG 
Large Dinosaurs’ Den Found in Malaysia By Sia Hok Kiang Every 4th of May is significant to me. It was on that day in 1969 when I was transferred to a new secondary school called SMTP, located at the triple road junction between Batu Pahat, Parit Sulong and Yong Peng, all in Johor, Malaysia. At the back of SMTP was a long mountain range called Bukit Belah. As a kid, I used to climb up Bukit Belah with my school mates so we could have an aerial view of Tongkang Pechah, our village. In the days when air travel was an unthinkable luxury, being able to have a panoramic view of your kampong was an ecstasy! I moved on in life to graduate from the University of Malaya as a geologist; and, in the course of my geological studies, learned that the ridge behind SMTP was composed of sandstone and conglomerates of the Jurong Formation, of Jurassic age, the age of dinosaurs! Prof. Living Lee, a renowned palaeontologist, used to lament that the Jurong Formation could likely be the place where dinosaur fossils would be found in Malaysia. Yet, over the years, he only managed to find fossil prints of ferns and shells, all of which were food for dinosaurs, in the Jurassic Jurong Formation. Just after the recent Chinese New Year holidays, I took Oro, my trusted Camel Trophy Discovery back to Batu Pahat, to have a run at Bukit Belah. My intension was to select a good campsite for the 4th of May reunion of the SMTP’72 alumni. I am glad this year that my eldest boy, Eric, who had returned from the US, was able to join us, so I had all my three sons, Eric, Henry and David when I did the Bukit Belah recce. Much to my dismay, most of Bukit Belah had been developed into oil palm estates. So we decided to venture further in, negotiating precarious slopes into an area called Bindu, an undeveloped reserve land. At Bindu there was a small waterfall with a crystal clear flowing stream, there were plenty of green-fin fighting fish, fresh water red shrimps and crabs! There was a basin- like valley facing the waterfall, surrounded on all three sides by the Jurong Formation, a perfect camping ground! We decided to camp at Bindu. The night sky was full of stars. I was able to point out the three-in-a-line Orion constellation to my sons, telling them that my late father used to point out the same constellation to me and said it was known as the “heaven’s measuring ruler”. As we were retiring into our rooftop tent, suddenly I noticed that certain leaves of the trees by the waterfall were glowing in the dark! It was a faint glow, light green, very much like the glow of a fire fly, but more distinct, larger and plentiful! Have we stumbled upon the scary “ghost lamps” of the local folklore? Eric and I decided to investigate. We venture carefully, slowly to the waterfall. As we got near, we found that the faint light was emitting from certain leaves of a big banyan tree! No wonder local folks would burn joss sticks at the base of the banyan tree; the glowing leaves must have led them to believe that the tree was the host to spirits! We managed to collect some leaves and brought them back to the camp. They continued to glow, albeit faintly. Bionic luminescence, the physicist in Eric told me was the cause of the glow. I brought the leave samples back to the University of Malaya, and, as usual, had the leaves analysed by Electron-Probe-Micro-Analysis (EPMA), and found that the leaves had a high content of Phosphorous. (Phosphorous is a major ingredient in bones, and in its natural form, could be efflorescent. In the olden days, the night-visible watch dials were coated with phosphorous.) The glowing trees must be growing on ground that has high phosphorous content! I wasted no time in bringing some geologists to collect samples from Bindu, and, as it turned out, the soil in the Bindu valley contain in excess of 28% P2O5 (Phosphate Oxide – a major fertiliser ingredient), the soil itself already attaining industrial grade, and there were millions of tons of this! There is no igneous activity in the surrounding area of Bindu to contribute to the phosphorus mineralisation, the phosphorous content in the soil must have come from some other sources. Studying the geological history of the Bindu valley, I realised that the source of phosphorous must have derived from bones, Dinosaur bones! This was a mass grave of dinosaurs, the dinosaurs’ den! If well preserved, the Bindu deposit would have rivalled Judith River of Montana, USA, as the World’s largest dinosaur fossil ground! However, as a result of the prolonged tropical weathering, the dinosaur bones disintegrated, contributed phosphorous to the largest phosphate deposit in Malaysia! No wonder durians from Bindu grew to 5 kg each! This dinosaur of a discovery would earn me the crown as the king of phosphate fertilisers. As a tribute to the Jurassic dinosaurs, and as a carriage fit for a king, a dinosaur like Phantom VI will be arriving soon! Happy offroading my LROM friends, it is always rewarding, I must say!